


Day 22: Ghost

by Magpie_Crow



Series: Inktober 2019 [22]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Ghosts, Happy Ending, M/M, Necromancy, Remus is only there for half a second, Sort Of, blood mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-23
Updated: 2019-10-23
Packaged: 2020-12-28 19:33:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21142043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Magpie_Crow/pseuds/Magpie_Crow
Summary: “I was murdered, you know.”The man vanished, leaving Virgil alone in the room.





	Day 22: Ghost

**Author's Note:**

> This is the second part of the fic based on the Highwayman! Make sure to read Day 3: Bait, before you read this one. It's not a great stand-alone, lol!

Virgil opened his eyes and sat up as the carriage rattled to a halt. His fiancé, Logan, was sitting across from him, nose in a book as usual. He looked out of the window to see a small inn with a quaint cobblestone courtyard.

“Sorry, m’lord, one o’ the horses caught a stone.” The craggy face of their driver looked worriedly down at Virgil. 

“That’s fine. We don’t have to continue on this evening, I’m sure everyone is tired. Right, Logan?”

Logan didn’t look up. “Absolutely.”

Virgil made a face at him, but smiled genially at the footman who opened the carriage door. “Thank you. Do you know anything about this inn?”

“Yessir. It’s been ‘round here for two decades. It’s got a new owner, as of five years ago or thereabouts.”

He waved away the hand that the footman held out to help him down. “No, thank you. Logan?”

His fiancé shuffled out of the vehicle, still reading. Virgil wondered why he had agreed to marry the reclusive scholar. It was probably the poems that Logan wrote, extolling the virtues of Virgil’s blue eyes and flaxen hair. 

Logan hadn’t made any effort to continue wooing Virgil once he’d secured a ‘yes’. 

“Welcome, welcome!” An older woman bustled out of the inn, beaming at Virgil. “Thank ye for stopping, good sirs! Can I interest ye in a bite of sup?”

“Yes, thank you, and two rooms, please. Both with two beds.”

He wasn’t yet comfortable sleeping in the same bed as his fiancé. Virgil wondered if he ever would be.

~~

Some time after they went to bed, Virgil woke to Logan leaving the room. He waited for a moment before getting up and following. 

He found Logan in the courtyard, staring up at a shuttered room not far from the one they had been bedded down in. As Virgil opened his mouth to ask what was going on, there was a clattering of hooves across the cobblestones. 

He turned, and there riding towards the inn door was a man on a black horse, silhouetted by the bright moon. The man rode right past them, close enough that Virgil thought he should have felt the brush of the horse’s tail. 

The man stopped beneath the window Logan had been watching, and, as Virgil stared, the casement opened. There was another man in the room. When he saw the man’s face, Virgil almost gasped. It resembled his own in a striking manner. Logan said nothing. 

The man in the window reached down so the man on the horse could kiss his hand.

“Logan? What is going on?”

“Merely a figment of your imagination, Virgil. You ought to return inside, no need getting a chill from the night air.”

Virgil had stopped paying attention after the first word, because as soon as Logan spoke, the man on the horse vanished and the man in the window backed away from the casement. 

As Logan finished his sentence, the sharp sound of a musket going off rang from the room. 

“Logan! There was a gunshot! I’m going to go check on him!”

“Virgil, wait!”

Virgil ignored him in favor of running back inside, quickly finding the other room. He knocked frantically, and when there was no answer, he opened the door. 

The man from before was standing at the foot of the bed. 

“Excuse me? Are you okay?”

The man turned, and Virgil staggered backwards at the sight of him, covered in blood. 

_“I was murdered, you know.”_ The man vanished, leaving Virgil alone in the room.

~~

Virgil left the room he and Logan were staying in early the next morning, far before the sun rose. He found the innkeeper in the kitchen. 

“Excuse me, can you tell me more about this inn?”

“Saw the auld innkeep’s son, did ye?”

“Is that who it was?”

The woman nodded. “I don’t ken much about it, just that I was sold the inn quick-like. Auld Thomas moved to the city soon after. Could nae stay in the countryside, wi’ that hangin’ oer his  
head.”

“Could you tell me where to find this Thomas?”

“Aye, lad. He’s taken to telling stories on street corners, so ah’ve heard. Go lookin’ by the west fountain afore noontide.”

“Thank you. If… If my companion asks after me, tell him I went on a walk, and to expect me back before the carriage is ready to leave?”

“Can do. Am I to expect ye back?”

Virgil thought for a moment. “I don’t think so. Logan has something to do with this, and he won’t tell me anything. I need to get my information elsewhere."

~~

Old Thomas was easy to find, once Virgil rode back into the city on their spare horse. He was not easy to speak to. One look at the royal crest on the horse’s livery, and Thomas clammed up.

“I’ve had plenty enough trouble with the king’s men.” 

Virgil’s uncle’s men. “Why do you say that? I don’t plan on harming you, sir.”

“They never plan on anythin’, and yet my son is still dead by their ‘ands. Them and that thrice-cursed scholar, Logan.” The old man made eye contact with Virgil for the first time. “You look  
like my son, you know? It’s cruelty, that’s what it is.”

~~

“Virgey? You’re back so soon!” 

“I don’t have time to talk, father. Where is the necromancy tome?” 

Lord Remus, Duke of the kingdom, lit up. “Finally taking after me, eh?”

“No, just setting things right. I’m not marrying Logan, by the way.”

“Good, I didn’t like him much. Too logical.”

~~

_They say the Duke’s son took an old man from the city and bought a small manor house out on the moors. Some claimed they saw two transparent figures wandering the garden, hand in hand, even when the Duke’s son and his housekeeper were out. _

_Others claimed the lord of the manor brought three companions with him, two young men and one old. _

_There where whispers that the three young men were in an illicit relationship. _

_Why else would the Duke’s son have broken off his engagement to a highly respected scholar?_

_Only the four occupants of the manor knew the truth. Old Thomas knew that his son would be around for the rest of his life. Virgil knew that he would never allow his heart to be taken advantage of. As for the two ghosts? Well, they were happy to stand together under the sun, and hold each other once more. _

_What more could they ask for? _

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed!
> 
> I set up a Discord server! <https://discord.gg/gtWgvQ4>  
Join me to talk about my writing and stuff!
> 
> Find more on tumblr @we-are-fam-ily


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